Week 6 of the DraftKings Millionaire Maker went to CMACXIMUS with 210.5 points, edging second place by just 1.3. It was the lowest winning score of the 2026 season — and it still paid a million dollars. Here’s the lineup, and what it teaches.
The winning lineup
- QB Michael Penix Jr. — 24.1 (under 5% owned)
- RB D’Andre Swift — 23.0 (10.1%)
- RB Chuba Hubbard — 22.1
- WR Germie Bernard — 25.7
- WR Malik Nabers — 31.5 (just under 25%)
- WR Xavier Worthy — 14.3
- TE Isaiah Likely — 23.9
- FLEX Kenneth Walker III — 30.9
- DST Chiefs — 15.0 (5.9%)
Takeaway 1: The QB ownership gate keeps printing
For the second straight week, the Milly was won by a quarterback almost nobody played. Drake Maye took Week 5 at 4.3% owned; Penix won Week 6 under 5%. Add Dak Prescott (5.2%) in Week 4 and the pattern is three straight winners under 7% — while the chalk QBs those weeks watched from the wrong side of the leaderboard. Our rule stands: in the Milly Maker, QB ownership under 7% is where winners live.
Yes, Penix ran naked — no Falcons pass-catchers. That happens a couple of times a season, and we still won’t build that way (our stacks stay QB+2 by rule). The lesson isn’t the construction. It’s the ownership.
Takeaway 2: The leverage exception, live again
Germie Bernard (25.7) was the Steelers’ third option on paper — until Michael Pittman Jr., Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek were all out. Elevated into a real role, he caught 11 balls and the overtime game-winner. This is the exact profile our leverage-exception rule exists for: a thin player who’s a direct, injury-elevated piece of a real offense. Thin is fine when the role is real.
Takeaway 3: Cheap DST, expensive RB — not the other way around
The Chiefs DST scored 15 at 5.9% owned, right in line with the ~$3,100 average price of winning defenses in our database. The pay-up spot in this lineup was the FLEX, where Kenneth Walker III (30.9) was the slate’s top-scoring running back. That’s the winning salary shape: save on defense, spend where ceiling lives.
Takeaway 4: Par is a target, not a guarantee
210.5 is well below the ~230 average winning score from 2024–25 — a reminder that on a 10-game slate with the points spread thin, “good enough” still takes the whole thing down. Build for ceiling every week; the weeks the slate breaks soft are the weeks ceiling constructions lap the field anyway.
Penix, by the way, is now a two-time Milly-winning QB in our database (he also won in 2024) — the full census lives on our Milly Maker Stats page. The Playbook built from all 42 winners is here.
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